Mr. John McKeon:

I take the point. It is something that we will consider in the context of the next Pathways document. The rate of unemployment has fallen, and the long-term unemployment rate is falling faster than the general rate, but there are still a lot of long-term unemployed people for whom we must provide. These are issues for the Minister to consider. For the next year or two there will still be a lot of pressure in terms of priority access to those spaces among those who are long-term unemployed, which is natural. These matters will be taken into account.

Senator Moloney asked about self-employed people. The issue with self-employed people is that they do not have automatic access to jobseeker's benefit, which then raises the issue of access to credits, because credits are generally associated with moving from jobseeker's benefit to jobseeker's allowance. The vast majority of such people - more than 80% - do get jobseeker's allowance. In other words, they satisfy the means test.

The vast majority of people who were self-employed and who do not have the resources to look after themselves will get support from the State.